{"id":3384,"date":"2008-06-16T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/new-mexicos-2nd-district-race-is-already-heating-up\/"},"modified":"2008-06-16T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-16T13:00:00","slug":"new-mexicos-2nd-district-race-is-already-heating-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/new-mexicos-2nd-district-race-is-already-heating-up\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico’s 2nd District race is already heating up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The primary has just ended, but New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s 2nd Congressional District general-election race between Democrat Harry Teague<\/a> and Republican Ed Tinsley<\/a> is already heating up. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The fundraising group for House Democrats has set its sights on electing Teague. And a nonpartisan political analysis group has recently shifted its rating of the race from one Tinsley is likely to win to one that leans in his favor, but not as strongly.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There\u2019s good reason for that. The district is conservative and one where outgoing Republican Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a> has had few difficulties winning re-election. At the same time, the majority of the district\u2019s registered voters are Democrats, and analysts across the nation agree that there\u2019s a strong Democratic trend this year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That sets the stage for a hotly contested race. The day after winning the Democratic primary, Teague fired the first shot by alleging that Tinsley, a rancher and restaurant-chain owner, doesn\u2019t live in the district.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI would think that the people of the 2nd Congressional District would want their representative to live in the 2nd Congressional District, and he doesn\u2019t,\u201d The Associated Press<\/a> quoted Teague as saying.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a new allegation against Tinsley, who owns a ranch in Capitan in the 2nd District and what he calls a \u201csecond home\u201d in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> in the 3rd District. Tinsley says he spends most of his time at the ranch<\/a> and pays taxes and votes using that address.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a point on which Democrats believe Tinsley is vulnerable. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee<\/a> (DCCC) sent out a news release bringing attention to The Associated Press article about the issue. And a DCCC spokesman, in a statement for this article, also referred to Tinsley\u2019s residency:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited about the campaign of Harry Teague, a moderate businessman who has created thousands of jobs in New Mexico and is a great fit for the district,\u201d DCCC spokesman Yoni Cohen said. \u201cEd Tinsley prefers to spend much of his time in Santa Fe<\/st1:city> and is out of touch with the economic challenges facing middle-class families in southern New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The DCCC recently put out another news release highlighting the fact that the nonpartisan Cook Political Report<\/a> has changed its ranking of the 2nd District race from \u201clikely Republican\u201d to \u201clean Republican\u201d — a ranking that\u2019s still favorable to Tinsley but not quite as definite.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The money<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Involvement of the DCCC in the race is good for Teague. According to the Washington Post blog The Fix<\/a>, the DCCC had $45 million on hand at the end of April, while its Republican counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee<\/a>, had just $6.7 million. Often, DCCC backing includes financial support and other help, though Cohen wouldn\u2019t say whether the group plans to provide more than verbal support to Teague because the DCCC doesn\u2019t discuss such strategy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Tinsley had some help during the primary from the National Restaurant Association<\/a>, of which he is a past president. It spent $200,000 to promote Tinsley, and he could get more help in the general election.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Both candidates contributed personal wealth to their campaigns during the primary and have the ability to do it again. Teague loaned his campaign about $767,000 during the primary, while Tinsley loaned his campaign $235,000.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In response to questions about money, including whether Tinsley plans to loan his campaign more for the general election, spokesman Christopher Maloney said Tinsley \u201cwill work tirelessly to keep pace with what we expect to be record onslaught of funds emanating from liberal special-interest groups, the DCCC and Mr. Teague\u2019s bank account during the general-election campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic nomination for this seat may have been for sale to the highest bidder, but the 2nd Congressional District\u2019s seat in Congress is one that Mr. Teague won\u2019t be able to buy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Teague\u2019s campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this article. But he told the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> last week that his campaign is planning to \u201cget out and work for this like nobody has ever worked for it before and put a Democrat in Congress in the 2nd Congressional District.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The rhetoric<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Maloney said Tinsley \u201cremains committed to discussing and debating the critical issues affecting New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> and our country.\u201d He said those issues range from \u201cfighting for tax relief and affordable health care for middle-class families and small businesses, to fixing our nation\u2019s broken immigration system, to decreasing the obsessive and unreasonable government regulations which hamstring our nation\u2019s ability to become independent from foreign-energy producers.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Tinsley also opposes \u201ca timetable for defeat in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>,\u201d Maloney said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cEd Tinsley will continue to outline the conservative policies which will lead to real reform in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,\u201d he said. \u201cMr. Teague represents the liberal Washington<\/st1:city>, D.C.<\/st1:state>, big-government, tax-and-spend approach which has proven time and time again to be detrimental to New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> and our nation\u2019s economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a>, one of Teague\u2019s most visible supporters, said in an interview that Teague is in a strong position to draw independent and Republican votes in November.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI think people\u2019s desire to see something different for the country is really going to prevail and people are going to want to send different people to Congress,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 Harry has a much stronger record in public service than Ed Tinsley does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The primary has just ended, but New Mexico\u2019s 2nd Congressional District general-election race between Democrat Harry Teague and Republican Ed Tinsley is already heating up. The fundraising group for House Democrats has set its sights on electing Teague. And a nonpartisan political analysis group has recently shifted its rating of the race from one Tinsley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}